The Tennessean

“It is our mutual desire to conduct these negotiations in a confidential manner,” a release sent jointly by the the Nashville Musicians Associa-tion and the Nashville Symphony said Thursday. “Accordingly, both sides have agreed to a media blackout.”

The symphony musicians’ contract expires July 31. During the six-year collective bargaining agreement, the orchestra won seven Grammy awards and performed at the prestigious “Spring for Music” show at New York City’s Carnegie Hall.

“It seems that the unprecedented rise of the NSO in the orchestral world has paralleled the recent renaissance of Nashville itself,” said Nashville electric violinist Tracy Silverman, who performed with the symphony at Carnegie Hall, playing a piece written for him by American composer Terry Riley. “They’ve substantially contributed to the musical prestige and upward arc of this city, and they’ve done it, I think, by understanding and respecting their audience.”

Salaries not at fault

Referring to pending June 28 foreclosure auction of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the union said in a statement on Monday that the musicians’ salaries could not be blamed for the orchestra’s financial problems because those salaries account for only 30 percent of the orchestra’s budget.

“At a time when the world is looking at Nashville’s economic and artistic growth with great interest and admiration, it is most unfortunate that the Schermerhorn now faces foreclosure due to a combination of circumstances beyond the control of any one person or entity,” Monday’s statement said. “This situation is most certainly not the fault of the musicians, but they are the ones who stand to suffer the most.”

The orchestra has 85 members, according to the symphony’s website. The latest tax return for the symphony association shows all salaries for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2012, totaled $13.4 million.

Previously, the musicians union had said the relationship between the musicians, staff and symphony board is “enviable when compared with many other orchestras throughout the United States, and certainly far from where it was when the orchestra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1988.”